Tin Man (episode)
The Enterprise races against Romulans to make First Contact with a powerful entity code-named "Tin Man." Summary Prologue As an initial step in the process surveying systems for Federation colonization, the Enterprise-D is on routine assignment preparing detailed exospheric charts of the Hayashi system, when the USS Hood is detected on long-range sensors rapidly approaching on an intercept course. Captain Robert DeSoto of the Hood, a long-time friend of Captain Picard, hails the Enterprise on a secure channel to inform them that while new priority orders from Starfleet Command are time-critical, because of security concerns of Romulan subspace surveillance the orders are being conveyed to the Enterprise via mission specialist Tam Elbrun. The fact that this new mission is being spearheaded by Tam Elbrun causes concern among many of the command personnel of the Enterprise, particularly Commander William Riker due or Tam Elbrun's involvement in the Ghorusda Disaster, which had cost the lives of fourty seven Starfleet personnel, among them Captain Darson of the Adelphi and two of Riker's academy classmates which many, including Riker, blame Tam Elbrun for. Ship's counselor Deanna Troi askes the captain if she may come with him to greet Tam, and discloses that she had previously know Tam Elbrun as a patient at the university on Betazed where she was studying psychology. Act One Picard is informed by Troi that Tam is considered a gifted telepath, even by Betazoid standards, and is a specialist for Starfleet in first contact situations. Lt. Commander Data and Captain Picard greet Tam in the transporter room where he is beamed over from the Hood by transporter chief Miles O'Brien. Though Picard extends common courtesy in welcoming Tam to the Enterprise Tam appears almost brusk and aloof towards him, and causally attempts to forestall what Tam considers uncomfortable extended interaction with others by tossing his orders, and mission details, to Picard on an isolinear data chip. Tam's attitude change is noticeably visible as he turns to greet Deanna Troi, whom he has a more friendly and more comfortable relationship with. He is however startled when Data interjects with his welcome, as Tam states that he cannot "read" Data's presence at all via his telepathic senses. At first Tam questions even who or what Data is, and is informed by Data of his being an android. Tam launches into a quick recitation to Data of Picard's wishes and orders for Data, by reading Picard's thoughts and cutting off Picard's spoken orders. It is not know whether this is once again merley to expedite his being around human members of the Enterprise's crew, a demonstration to Picard of his own prowess as a empath, or a combination of the two. It does however noticeably annoy Picard as he confirms what Tam had stated to both Data and via intercom to Riker on the bridge that course heading and basic mission orders are being brought tot he bridge, and that a staff bridge briefing would occur within 15 minutes. Tam expresses his desire to quickly complete the briefing so he can seclude himself as soon as possible until he is needed further. As the bridge crew assembles to first review the orders on the supplied chip, then for the staff briefing on the new mission, Riker tells Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in the turbolift more background on the Ghorusda Disaster than what Geordi knew from common knowledge, and how Tam Elbrun, while not officially found to be responsible by a Starfleet Board of Inquiry, should have been more competent and aware in order to prevent such an incident. The new mission orders are that the Enterprise is to proceed to the Beta Stromgren star system, following the path of the Vega IX probe which has traveled twenty-three parsecs beyond the furthest manned Federation exploration. In the staff meeting, Data conveys that the probe has discovered that the star in that system is in the final stages of an alternating cycle of expansion and collapse, which will soon result in the star going supernova. Tam interrupts Data out of frustration in Data's focus on tertiary background information and leaps ahead relying that the real focus of the mission is centered on the discovery by the probe of what appears to be a "living" starship possessing an unknown energy source, in orbit around the star. This object has been code-named "Tin Man" by Starfleet. Troi is confused as to why Starfleet has made the mission so urgent, and Picard informs her that the issue is the Romulans, at which Tam expresses frustration with himself at forgeting to address in giving the voerview of the mission. After failed attempts at long-range, subspace linguacode messages Starfleet has ordered that the Enterprise to set course for Beta Stromgren as quickly as possible, as that sector of space is claimed by the Romulan Star Empire. As the Romulans routinely monitor the telemetry of all Federation deep-space probes, it has been detected by Starbase 123 that the Romulans have dispatched two D'deridex class Warbirds in an attempt to reach "Tin Man" before the Federation can. While these class warbirds are slower than the Galaxy class starships, it is essentially a race to get to "tin man" ahead of the Romulians. As Data is holds an honors degree from Starfleet in exobiology and is consdered by the command staff as the onboard expert in the field, Picard order Data to head-up the life sciences team for the mission. After the meeting is adjourned, Picard and Riker talk further with Tam, with Picard expressing his concern about Tam's initial omission during the breifing about the Romulians, since the possibility of an encounter with them during the mission was vital information that Tam did not properly prioritize within the parameters of the mission. Tam appologizes for not mentioning it earlier int he briefing, stating that he was distracted. Riker is perterbed by this seeming pattern of carelessness in Tam's professionalism, and Tam picks up his thoughts and angrily counters Riker by stating that "And no Billy-boy, I wasn't distracted on Ghorusda. If Darson had listened to me no one would have died!" Though apparently this does little to change Riker's opinion of Tam's history. Act Two Still two days out from the Beta Stromgren system, Picard confers with Doctor Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi becuase of his concerns about the stability of Tam who Starfleet considers crucial to the mission and upon whom Picard is forced to rely upon. Picard is surprised when informed by Crusher how high on the ESP scale Tam is, and how he is considered to be a prodigy when it comes to telepathic abilities. Troi explains that this is due to Tam being born telepathic, which is rare in Betazoids, who usually develop their telepathic abilities in adolescence. Such Betazoids rarely if ever lead normal lives as the "noise" of hearing other people's thoughts during early development is often overwhelming even incomprehensible. Early diagnosis and training helped Tam to adjust, though this has led to occasional need for hospitalization and therapy to deal with the stress, hence her contact with him at the university while studying psychology. As a result of his background, this has promoted Tam towards assignments where he is more isolated from other humanoids and seeking out the more unusual lifeform assignments. As the Enterprise races towards its destination, acting Ensign Wesley Crusher notices that the navigational sensors are picking up an anomalous "echo" which matches their speed and course. Lt. Commander Worf confirms that something does appear to be shadowing their flight path, but doesn't fully register on their sensors. Data, who has the comm] surmises that since there is no known naturally occurring phenomenon that travels greater than warp one, it must either be a sensor malfunction, or another vessel is following them covertly. Worf declares that it is not a sensor malfunction, yet Crusher is confused with the easiest explanation that a cloaked Romulan vessel is following them, since if it were a cloaked warbird, they should not be picking it up at all. Geordi Laforge speculates that if they are pulling an extreme amount of power for some other system, they may not be able to fully cloak, thus being picked up faintly on the navigation sensors. Worf is ordered by Data to continue monitoring the "echo" and if it changes course or behavior, to go immediately to yellow alert. Deanna Tori goes to Tam's quarters to check on him since he has not been out of his stateroom for quite some time. Tam at first is sarcastic and curt with Troi, but finally let's down his emotional defenses and confides in Deanna that the reason for his sequestering himself in his stateroom is because the number of people on the ship scare him. His inability to hold out their thoughts and feelings threaten to overwhelm him, and that he never really could shut it all out. Compounding Tam's doubts about his own reliability are Riker and Picard's stemming from the Ghorusda incident which Tam is well aware of because of his inability to shut out other form his telepathic perceptions. Troi presses him on what happened to him during the incident. Tam admits that he may have gotten "too close" to the Ghorusdians, which is not a unique thing to happen for Tam, and that it may have affected the professional detahcment that is oftne needed in such missions. He confesses that he probably could have warned Darson more forcefully and maybe avoided the disaster the resulted. Troi puts forward the suggestion that he "ran away" because of the Ghorusda incident, by seeking out isolated assignments, such as being the only Federation delegate to be posted to Chandra V, giving him some measure of respite, and where Tam was up until his seeking out the assignment for making contact with "Tin Man". The Chandrains are a very peacfual and tranquil people, unlike humans, and this had been a relief for Tam, and one reason why Tam tells Troi that he likes being around Data since he is not bombarded by Data's thoughts due to his inability to "read" him. This perplexes Troi, since if the Chandrans proved some measure of releif for Tam, why then did he volunteer to put himself into such an uncomfrotable situation where he would be onbaord a vessel with over a thousand minds which would be quite uncomfratble for Tam. Tam expresses that he coudn't help but vounteer, since he found "Tin Man" so compelling, so alien. That such a creature, intelgent, born in space, "swimming" in it as freely a fish does in water, so mysterious, ancient, alone and lonely. The depth and certitude of what Tam says about "Tin Man", even what emotions it is feeling prompts Troi to confront Tam about whether he is in contact with "Tin Man" telepathically since he seems to know things that no deep-space sensor telemetry could possibly convey. Reflexively Tam denies this, but quickly acknowledges that he is, but not on a conscious level. This news is shocking to Troi, since such a connection light-years away is impossible even for a telepath as gifted as Tam is, but Tam replies "but it may not be impossible for 'Tin Man." The Enterprise finally arrives at the outer edge of the Beta Stromgren system and are at an ETA of 18 minutes in reaching "Tin Man's" location, but the astrophysics section reports that the star's collapse has accelerated and that the star could go supernova in minutes. They are also now getting a live data-relay from the Vega probe, facilitating close-proximity visual surveillance of "Tin Man". As Tam and Deanna arrive on the bridge, Worf informs Picard that sensors are now detecting a subspace wave-front of highly ionized particles ahead of the "echo" that has been following them for some time. Picard immediately takes the ship to yellow-alert as a Romulan warbird becomes visable as it enters the system. Act Three Log Entries *''Captain’s log, stardate 43779.3. The Enterprise is preparing detailed exospheric charts of the Hayashi system, although tedious this endeavor is the first step towards planet colonization.'' *''Captain’s log, supplemental. Traveling at high warp we are still several days from rendezvous with the mysterious entity Starfleet has christened "Tin Man". My immediate concern is with Tam Elbrun. Starfleet considers his unique abilities crucial to our mission, yet he seems to me unstable.'' *''Captain’s log, supplemental. A confrontation between the Romulan warbird and Tin Man is eminent. I have no alternative, but to rely on the telepathic abilities of Tam Elbrun.'' Background Information *The ambient sounds that Gomtuu made were derived from sounds recorded from sound effects editor Jim Wolvington's stomach through a stethoscope while he was eating pizza. Links and References Guest Stars *Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien *Harry Groener as Tam Elbrun *Michael Cavanaugh as Robert DeSoto *Peter Vogt as Romulan Commander References 47; ''Adelphi'', USS; Beta Stromgren; Betazed; Betazoids; Chandra V; Chandrans; Darson, Captain; ''D'deridex''-class; exobiology; first contact; Ghorusda; Ghorusdans; Gomtuu; Hayashi system; ''Hood'', USS; parsec; Romulans; Russell; Starbase 123; telepathy; Vega IX probe; warp coil Category:TNG episodes de:Der Telepath nl:Tin Man